Chowdhury Fazlul Bari | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Allegiance |  Bangladesh |
| Service/ |  Bangladesh Army |
| Years of service | 1976-2008 |
| Rank |  Brigadier General  |
| Unit | East Bengal Regiment |
| Commands |
|
| Police career | |
| Unit | Rapid Action Battalion |
| Allegiance | Bangladesh |
| Branch |  Bangladesh Police |
| Service years | 2004–2006 |
| Rank |  Additional Director |
Chowdhury Fazlul Bari is a former Bangladesh Army officer and former director general of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence. [1]
Bari joined the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in 2004 when it was founded. [1] As a lieutenant colonel he served as the additional director general of RAB. [2] The last post he held in RAB was additional director general. [1] In 2005 he defended Rapid Action Battalions practice of extrajudicial killing of suspects to the US embassy. [3] He was made director of DGFI by the then BNP lead government. [1] During military backed caretaker government headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed, he became the chief of DGFI. [1] However, at the end of the caretaker government he was posted to Bangladesh's diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C. [1]
Tarique Rahman, son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, accused him of leading his torture. [4] He was recalled from his post after the elected Awami League government took power. [1] He sought an extension but the government did not grant it and later Bangladesh Army declared him absconding without leave (AWL) officer. [1]
In 2009 Bari declared a deserter. [5] During the caretaker administration he tried to aid Bangladesh Freedom Party and National Democratic Alliance. The freedom party was formed by the military officers who killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh in a coup. He married Mehnaz Rashid, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Khandaker Abdur Rashid, one the killers of Sheikh Mujib and a leader of the Freedom Party. He divorced her in December 2008. He denied marrying her. [6] In 2009 he applied for political asylum in the United States. [7]
Bangladesh has undergone several changes of government since the Proclamation of Independence in 1971. Between the first recorded uprising in August 1975 and the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles revolt, Bangladesh has been through as many as 29 military coups.
Rapid Action Battalion is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police. This elite force consists of members of the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Police, Border Guard Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Ansar. It was formed on 26 March 2004 as RAT, and commenced operations on 14 April 2004.
The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, commonly known by its acronym DGFI, is the defense intelligence agency of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, tasked with collection, collation and evaluation of strategic and topographic information, primarily through human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the Bangladesh intelligence community, the DGFI reports to the Director-General under the executive authority of the head of government, the Prime Minister, and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the Prime Minister, the Cabinet of Bangladesh, and the Armed Forces of Bangladesh.
Syed Faruque Rahman was a coup member involved in toppling the Sheikh Mujib regime in Bangladesh. He was convicted and hanged on 28 January 2010 along with co-conspirators Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Bazlul Huda in Dhaka Central Jail, Old Dhaka, for the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh. Syed Faruque Rahman and his close ally Khondaker Abdur Rashid were the chief organisers of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. He was 2IC of the 1st Bengal Lancers Regiment of the Bangladesh Army who led a group of junior army officers in order to overthrew the regime of Sheikh Mujib and install Khondaker Mushtaque Ahmed as president of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first president of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members during the early hours of 15 August 1975 by a group of Bangladesh Army personnel who invaded his Dhanmondi 32 residence as part of a coup d'état. The Minister of Commerce, Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, immediately took control of the government and proclaimed himself head of the interim government from 15 August to 6 November 1975. The assassination marked the first direct military intervention in Bangladesh's civilian administration-centric politics. Lawrence Lifschultz characterized this incident as an outcome of the Cold War between the United States-influenced Pakistan and the Soviet Union-influenced India. 15 August is annually observed as National Mourning Day, a commemorative day in Bangladesh.
The Daily Star is a Bangladeshi English-language daily newspaper. It is by far the largest circulating English-language newspaper in the country. Founded by Syed Mohammed Ali on 14 January 1991, as Bangladesh transitioned and restored parliamentary democracy, the newspaper became popular for its outspoken coverage of politics, corruption, and foreign policy. It is considered a newspaper of record for Bangladesh. The newspaper has been described as having a "reputation for journalistic integrity and liberal and progressive views - a kind of Bangladeshi New York Times".
Jail Killing Day is observed by the Awami League (AL) of Bangladesh and many other political organisations on 3 November every year. It commemorates the killing of four Awami League and national leaders: former vice-president Syed Nazrul Islam, former prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed and Captain (Rtd.) Mansur Ali, and former home minister A H M Quamruzzaman on this date in 1975.
M Ilias Ali was a Bangladeshi politician and member of the Jatiya Sangsad (2001–2006) representing the Sylhet-2 constituency. He served as the organising secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He, along with his personal car driver, Ansar Ali, went missing on 18 April 2012. Later that day, local police recovered his abandoned car near his residence in Banani neighborhood and found Ansar's cellphone inside. They have not been seen since. On the tenth anniversary of his disappearance, Netra News, an independent news platform in Sweden, reported on 21 April 2022, that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite Bangladeshi police unit, had carried out the disappearance. The platform cited leaked confidential documents and internal investigations documents from RAB to reach the conclusion.
Enforced disappearances in Bangladesh are cases in which the Government of Bangladesh directly or indirectly kidnaps people and holds them incommunicado. According to a Dhaka-based human rights group Odhikar, at least 402 people have become victim of enforced disappearance from 2009 to 2017 under the former Awami League administration. These incidents along with extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh has been criticized by The United Nations and human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a special paramilitary unit in Bangladesh, is alleged to be behind most of these disappearances even though RAB claimed these allegations to be false, though evidence has comeforth that they were the ones behind these disappearances. The autocratic Awami League regime denies involvement in these forced disappearances even when victims later surface in custody.
Gulzar Uddin Ahmed, also known as Colonel Gulzar Ahmed, was the founding director of the intelligence wing and also served Additional Director General of Rapid Action Battalion. Until his death, he was a Colonel of the Bangladesh Army and also Sector Commander and Deputy Director General of Bangladesh Rifles.
Mohammad Akbar Hossain is a retired lieutenant general in the Bangladesh Army and former commandant of National Defence College.
Khandaker Abdur Rashid is a Bangladesh Army officer and a accused of assassinating the first president of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib.
Sadik Hasan Rumi is a former Major General of Bangladesh Army who served as Director General of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) from May 2002 to May 2007.
Syed Fatemi Ahmed Rumi is a retired major general of the Bangladesh Army and former director general of Special Security Force.
ATM Amin is a retired General of the Bangladesh Army. He is a former Director General of Forces Intelligence, and a former Director General of Ansar and VDP. He was forced into retirement in 2009.
Mohammad Bazlul Huda was a Bangladeshi Army officer who was convicted of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, president of Bangladesh. On 28 January 2010, Bazlul was hanged along with Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed in Old Dhaka Central Jail.
The 15 August 1975 Bangladesh coup d'état was a military coup launched by mid ranking army officers in Bangladesh on 15 August 1975. The officers were part of a conspiracy to assassinate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first president of Bangladesh. Rahman and most of his family members were killed during the coup, with the exception of his two daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana.
Abdul Aziz Sarkar was a Bangladeshi police officer who served as the Director General of Rapid Action Battalion.
Abdul Majed was a Bangladeshi military officer who was convicted for his role in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh.
Golam Mohammad was a Major General of Bangladesh Army and former Director General of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence. He is the former the Director General of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies.